


Daybreak

by MAngel05



Series: After the Reaper War [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Ending, Battlefield, Control Ending, Destroy Ending, F/M, Fear, Other, Synthesis Ending, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-19 16:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 13,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1475752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MAngel05/pseuds/MAngel05
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Final Battle for earth was ongoing when suddenly a strange light engulfed not just earth, but the entire galaxy. Follow Grunt and the others on a mission of their own to find Shepard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Grunt

**Chapter 1:** _Grunt_

* * *

 

 **Date** : _2186_

 **Location** : _Battlefield_ _Earth_

 

Grunt watched in awe as the light come down from the heavens and hit the ground of the earth. He felt the ground beneath him shake and turned in time to dodge out of the way as a Reaper leg come down as it to crush him. Hefting his weapon he began to shoot at the husks that followed the Reaper. Suddenly he spotted a tiny human standing there, seeming to be caught in fears grasp. Charging forward he grabbed the tiny human child. Children; no matter the species, were sacred to his people because of what the genophage had done to the krogan people.

 

Suddenly the light washed over the Reaper and as Grunt curled into himself to protect the child from the oncoming husks; only to not be attacked. Looking up he watched as the yellow-red light stopped the hordes or husks and they vaporized as they self-destructed. That was when the Reapers themselves began to shake. Looking up at the one that was nearest Grunt watched as the half destroyed Reaper exploded. Those that were not heavily damaged began to take off and leave the planet. Those all throughout the galaxy did likewise; which confused many people at first, but Grunt knew who had done this. _Battlmaster!_ He thought.

 

That was when he heard the roar of victory from his fellow krogan and turians, followed by the high shrieks of asari and humans. They’d beaten the enemy. Now it was time to find their injured and go home.

 

Looking down he saw the child looking up at him with large eyes full of fear. “Did we win?” she asked.

 

“Yes, my Battlemaster won this war for you.” He stated as he lifted the child up and put her on his hump. Picking up his weapon he began the long treck back to HQ. It was then that he heard a scream of fear. Looking for its source he saw an asari pointing upwards. Looking up he saw what had the asari’s panties in a bunch.

 

The citadel was damaged beyond what he thought it would be. Large pieces began falling from the sky. The child on his hump began to whimper in fear at the thought of being crushed by the thousands of tons of steel. Making a mad dash for safety he and many others who followed his example, began flocking to where it would be safe. Grunt heard and felt the ground shake as the steel began crashing into the earth below it. Diving out of the way and running as if he had dozens of threshers after him, Grunt made a silent prayer to his ancestors for protection.

 

As he rounded another destroyed building he saw a shadow come over him and saw a piece of the citadel debris coming right for his position. Growling he pushed his legs to make himself go faster. The child on his hump whimpering and yelling “run faster” every so often. That was when he saw a sewer hole open. He was thankful it was a big hole and jumped it and kept running. There was a suddenly crash above his head and was even more thankful when the tunnel’s roof didn’t collapse.

 

Tired as hell, he felt his legs give out from beneath him. Activating his omni-tool he made contact with HQ. “Grunt where are you?” came Wrex’s voice.

 

“In a sewer tunnel. The citadel is falling from the sky.” He said as if Wrex didn’t already know.

 

“We know.” came the scared krogan’s voice. “Can you get out?”

 

“I’m a krogan,” he stated as if Wrex shouldn’t even question that.

 

“Good. Shepard activated her location beacon, but it’s a weak signal from where we are.” Wrex said sounding worried.

 

“She’s on the Citadel.” Grunt said trying to figure out what he was supposed to do.

 

“The part that she’s in is located near you.” There was a pause. “In fact, it’s right above your position.”

 

Grunt looked up at the sewer pipes and growled. He grabbed the kid off of his hump and put her down on the ground. Pointing forward where he could see a light in the sewer tunnels roof he spoke. “That’s your way out. Run, I’ve gotta got upward from this point and get my Battlemaster.”

 

The child looked up at the krogan and then wrapped her arms around his one leg. “Thank-you for saving me Mr. Nice Krogan Man.”

 

Grunt was about to correct her on his name when she took off for the exit. Looking upwards once more he pulled his shot gun and began shooting through the roof and debris and everything that was between him and his Battlemaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hope everybody like this chapter. Now I do not know when I'll be able update again because my computer is acting up. It don't want to copy and past thing. I don't know why. I checked to see if it had a virus, but it didn't. I may have to clean out my cookies, but I don't know how. :'( 
> 
> So, I'll update as soon as I can, hopefully it won't be a long wait. So until then; please review. ^_^


	2. Jack

**Chapter 2:** _Jack_

* * *

 

 **Date** : _2186_

 **Location** : _London - Earth_

 

Brown eyes opened to see the world for the first time in what seemed like hours, but were really only a few minutes. The eyes belonged to the woman name Jack, once called Subject Zero; but that was a long time ago. Jack had been in the middle of a biotic attack when she had been thrown off her feet by an explosion that had been caused by a piece of the something large falling behind her. She was now on the ground, ash falling around her. Marauders, banshees, and husks nowhere to be seen. The soldiers around her were looking up at something. So pushing herself up into a sitting position she looked up to see what had their attention, because if it was another reaper she was going to fucking kill Shepard for not holding her end of the bargain in killing these things up at the Citadel.

 

What she saw made her heart stop and stomach drop. The Citadel was in pieces and some of the larger ones were crashing into the surface of the earth, especially around London, where one had just fallen. _So that’s what threw me off my feet onto my ass._ She thought as she suddenly saw a child crawl out of a hole just in front of the large piece of debris. _Shepard, you fucking idiot!_ She screamed in her mind. _You better not fucking die!_ She took off in a dead run, though along the way to the large piece of debris she saw several of her kids running towards her as she continued to run towards the piece of the Citadel. Once there she turned around and saw not only her kids, but several soldiers. “What the fu-hell are you all waiting for, start looking for survivors!” she turned and was face to face with Rodriguez who looked like she was about to cry at seeing her. “Don’t.” she said to the young girl. “There will be time for that crap later.”

* * *

 

Hours pass as they made their way through the large pieces of the Citadel and all they’d found were small children still clinging to their dead parents hands. Jack would order somebody unlucky enough to be near her to take the children to the nearest medical center. They left the dead bodies behind, though she was smart enough to look for their names in the Omni-tools and tag the children with the last names of their parents or guardians so that they would be found by whoever was still alive in their families.

 

They were halfway through the fourth large piece of debris when she came face to face with Grunt. She had first thought, because of how bad he looked and smelt that he was a surviving Marauder; but when she realized who he was she was both pissed and elated to see him. “You stupid take-bred Krogan!” she yelled at him. “I could’ve killed you.” The remnants of a biotic attack vanished as she calmed down.

 

Grunt laughed. “Like to see you try.” He turned to look at her group of soldiers and civilians. “Who are they?”

 

Looking back at the people she frowned. “Survivors who wouldn’t do as they are told and soldiers helping the injured back to a medical field hospital. Why?” she raised an eyebrow at him and gave her best Shepard impression on that she gave a fuck.

 

“I’ve been told Shepard is in this piece of debris. I’ve been digging my way to her for…” he paused when one of the people got a bit a closer.

 

“Did you say Shepard?” came the woman’s voice.

 

“And if he did?” Jack turned to her about to yell at the woman if she had something bad to say about Shepard; a woman she called a friend.

 

“She stopped the Reapers.” was the reply. “I’m a nurse and if she’s in here then she’s probably very hurt. I can help.”

 

“I’m an engineer; I can tell which ways are safe to her location.” came a man’s voice from behind the woman.

 

More people began telling Jack that they wanted to help find Shepard and help her. Soon Jack realized a little too late why Shepard hated big crowds, but loved helping people. Big crowds meant too much noise in one space, but helping people gave you a sense that you’d done something right. _Damn you Shepard! You’ve made me soft._ She groaned. “Shut the fu-hell up!” she looked at the three remaining kids from her group. Sanders would kill her if she cursed in front of them. Everybody went silent immediately. Turning to Grunt he gave her the location that he’d been given and the two, with the survivors began, making their way through the maze of broken pieces of the Citadel hoping against all odds that Commander Faith Shepard was still alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's the newest update for this story. I'm hoping that now I'll be able to post regular updates since my compter is fixed. I love having a brother-in-law that knows how fixed computers. ^_^


	3. Joker

**Chapter 3** : _Joker_

* * *

 

Eyes slowly opened and the world around came into focus very slowly. Sparks flying and spraying everywhere. Groaning Jeff “Joker” Moreau did a self once over to check what was broken, fractured, or sprained and found that he was surprisingly in perfect condition except for a little head ache. Touching his head he found a little blood on his forehead and cursed, he probably had a concussion. Considering everything they’d been through it was a bit surprising the see that this was the only thing wrong with himself. Straightening he turned over to EDI and saw her mech body slumped over the control board of the co-pilot seat. “EDI?” he said, but nothing came from her body or the speakers. His shoulders slumped a bit. She and he had talked about the possibility of the weapon begin one big EMP and they’d gone to great lengths to ensure she might survive it, which included a super expensive shielding unit that went around her AI Core and-.

 

Jeff’s head lifted from its downward position and he suddenly stood. Maybe she couldn’t hear him because the speakers were broken. Maybe the AI Core was just fine. He half ran, half hobbled through the broken Normandy. Spotting crew members leaning against odd and end things. He even saw Karin bandaging Garrus up, and Javik looked like his usually pissy self; except now he was holding an unarmored arm in a sling. Going down the stairs and making his way to the AI Core, he found Tali already there trying to get the doors to open to it. Walking over to her he grabbed a metal pipe off of the floor and wedged it in between the doors while she pushed them apart. Finally, after what seemed like forever the doors were opened and both gasped at what they saw. The AI Core was completely undamaged.

 

Tali rushed over to the core itself and began doing a diagnostic of any damages and found one a list of what was damaged on the Normandy. “EDI, you okay?” Jeff asked; though no answer came, until suddenly an avatar appeared on a holo stand next to the core.

 

Instead of what more of the crew joked as a _talking vagina_ , there stood a woman, about twenty-four inches tall. She had the build and look of the mech EDI had taken control of except this one had tan skin and light chocolate hair and green eyes. “Hello Jeff.” She smiled a twinkle definitely in her eyes.

 

“I am happy you approve of this image.” she replied. “I’ve been in the process of creating it for make months.”

 

“I definitely approve.” He smiled. “Give me the damage report.”

 

She nodded. “My sensors on the outside are all offline and I cannot give you a full report on outside damages. Though I can give you a guess on what may need repairing.”

 

“Okay.” He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

“Outside damages may include damages to the hull, engines, wings, tail, cockpit, and windows and outside shutters on the port observation deck.” She paused as if thinking, but data lines were going up and down her body, so she was more likely processing the data that was coming through. So Jeff stayed quiet as she suddenly seemed to look at him and Tali. “Inside damages include the entire engine room deck, cargo bay one and two are not registering, sensors in Commander Shepard’s room are stating that the roof has collapsed, the support beams on crew deck are registering with a high strain being put on them, however the secondary support beams are holding just fine; so we won’t have to worry about that for now. Med Bay is registering to just fine, as is the labs and crew rooms.” Pausing again she looked at more data. “The war room has been destroyed with wire from the roof panels collapsing in on it. Cockpit console is at a one hundred percent. Engines, unknown.”

 

“Unknown?” Jeff asked anxiously.

 

“I cannot gain any information about whether or not the engines in the engine room are damages or not.” He then turned back to Tali. “Shields are down to five percent. Weapon systems are down to ten percent power. Elevator system in down for now. Life support is at a sixty percent. Air system is damaged, but not beyond repair. Current air quality is at a fifty percent of what it is normally.”

 

“Is that bad?” Jeff asked, not really knowing if it was or not.

 

EDI shook her avatar head. “No. As long as the crew stay in the area’s they are they should be fine.” She paused as she read more data. “Ninety percent of fires have been contained.”

 

Jeff sighed and looked over to Tali. “Okay, this means we have to begin giving the crew the data they’ll need to begin fixing things.” Turning to EDI he spoke. “Give me a list of all major systems we need to leave whatever planet we’re crash on. Also, see if you can bring up navigation so that we can find where the heck we are.”

 

“What about you Joker?” Tali asked as she fidgeted with her fingers.

 

“First I’m going to med bay and get cleaned up, and you should get checked out too Tali. Them I’m going to go outside and see if I can find a clearing for the crew who are not injured and begin talking to them about their jobs. Then find out who the heck is actually in charge now that both Shepard and Kaiden are not on this ship.” He stated as he turned his heel and began walking away with Tali not too far behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Finally have an update for this story! Yay me!!! I know its a bit short, but oh well! Next one will be longer, I swear! ^_^


	4. Javik

**Chapter 4** : _Javik_

* * *

 

Javik sat in meditation by a stream trying to keep himself calm. After he had awoken in the med-bay, he’d found himself missing his right arm. As it turned out he had been hurt worse than he’d thought when the commander had brought the Normandy in to pick him and the quarian Tali’Zorah up from in the midst of the battle run towards the beam. He’d been pissed and actually pleaded to stay and finish the fight. _HE PLEADED! HIM! To a_ …. he paused on his way of thinking. Even if the commander was of a lesser species she had proven time and again that she was far superior to most humans. Lifting his head he watched as the crew buried their dead. Too many had died during the crash. The pilot himself had been injured severely, but had managed to land in an area of the habitable planet that seemed to have everything they’d need, excluding dextro foods. The planet was undoubtedly a levo planet and that meant that the two dextro people on the ship were going to need to be very careful with their food supplies.

He then saw the blue hand of one of the asari commandos that they’d brought onto the ship because she’d been injured. He had heard from the human doctor that the asari hand awoken to the jarring of the ship as it broke atmosphere and had flung her body over the doctors just as a piece of metal ceiling panel had broken off. The young asari had been killed, leaving the doctor uninjured.

Standing he walked over to the turian Garrus who was saying some things as the dead were buried. He had just ended his speech as they began burying the dead bodies that were in the holes that’d been dug for the dead. “Vakarian.” He said causing the turian to look towards him, he was grateful that nothing was said about his change of addressing the turian.

“Yes Javik?” he answered as he began to walk back towards the ship.

“I wish to scout forward around the area and perhaps find some game to hunt.” He looked at the humans Vega and Cotez. “They could be useful.” He nodded towards the two men.

Garrus stood back and looked at Javik. Was her hearing things? Javik was volunteering to help with something? he thought about that for a second. “Take Liara with you.” He said which caused a scowl to appear on the ancients face and before the Prothean could object Garrus continued. “She’s going to launch a small communications satellite and hopefully we’ll be able to communicate with people outside this system.”

Javik thought for a second before nodding. “Tell the asa-Liara to be ready in five.” With that the ancient walked away and hoped this day would be productive however he already had a feeling that this was going to be a very long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry for ths being so short, but the next chapter is longer with almost 2000 words. ^_^


	5. Liara

**Chapter 5** : _Liara_

* * *

 

The morning had started under a saddened note with the burial of many friends who’s died during the Normandy’s crash, but as soon as Garrus had told Liara that she was given the go ahead with her and Tali’s satellite she’d been excited, until she was told that she was going with Javik who was leading a scouting excursion into the jungle and silently she groaned.

The man was annoying. At first she’d been excited about learning from a living Prothean, only for that excitement to be squashed the second he began talking about how primitive everybody was and that her words were worth nothing. She’d done everything in her power to prove him wrong, but at every turn he fought her and at every turn her opinion about his people soured.

Now she was stuck with him all afternoon. She turned her head as she looked at James and Cortez, they at least gave her some company and didn’t snort at every word she spoke or had a horrible sense of humor by talking about how tasty a salarian liver would be right now.

“Hey blue,” James began, “I’m curious, how do you expect the outside to hear us with this tiny thing?” he asked pointing to the satellite piece that he and Cortez had been talked into carrying.

She smiled. “Tali put some geth parts in it that’ll allow the signal to excel through this system and theoretically give off a pulse that’ll push it into the next system and with each pulse the signal gets stronger and stronger until it can reach one of our satellites that the galactic community uses or even one of the many spy satellites that every species has in or around their neighboring systems.” She paused and then smiled. “However it also has a geth VI onboard that’ll send us information about this planet and help give us a heads up when the weather is about to change.”

“Huh.” was his reply as they continued their trek through the jungle until several hours later they came to a stop at the top of a mountainous range.

Liara watched as the two men put the satellite down and she began to type in coordinates and linked it up to her omni-tool. Stepping back she pressed a button on her omni-tool and the satellite sped off up into the air until it could no longer be seen. Suddenly her omni-tool gave a beep. Looking down she watched as the satellite thrusters began to push it into a stable orbit. The satellite with the VI onboard began to send information back to her.

“Well?” Cortez asked

“It’s working.” She said as she looked back up at the two men. Turning she saw Javik had gone a bit further upon the hill of the mountain and was starring at something.

“What’s it saying?” Vega asked as he walked over to her and starred at her arm.

“It’s saying nothing right now.” She said with a frown. “It’s scanning the area we’re in and it’ll take about an hour for it to send the data back to me.” she looked back at the men. “But it’s working. It’s also sending the signal that Tali programmed it with. So, hopefully we’ll have a reply in the next week or two.”

“I hope Sparks and Scars have enough food supplies to last ‘em.” He said as he went to join Javik.

As soon as the group had reached the ancient they found themselves starring at what Javik was looking at. Liara’s eyes widened. “It’s a Prothean ship!” she gasped as she looked over towards Javik. “This could be good news.”

“Yes.” he said seeming to come out of his daze and the three of them began to make their way down to the ancient ship.

It didn’t take as long to get to the ancient Prothean ship as it had taken them to get up the mountain from the Normandy. Liara looked at the sheer size of the ship. It was six times the size of the Normandy and was armed from one end to the other. It was a gun metal color and tinted windows. On the right side; which is the side they were on were lettering that didn’t look Prothean but rather…

“This ship was not made by my people but rather the Inusannon.” He said this while looking at the texts on the side. He frowned as he looked closer. “But its design is just like my people’s and how our ships were designed.”

Liara looked at the metal spikes that were hanging outward towards them and watched Javik begin to climb them with ease followed by both James and Cortez and lastly herself. Upon hearing glass break above her, she looked up just in time to watch Javik vanish inside of the ship and soon they all followed him.

Liara looked around the room she’d pulled herself into and followed the men as they looked out of the windows on the other side and gasped. Cryogenic pods lined the entire insides of the ship and each glowed a warm green color, indicating that every last one was active. It was then that a holographic display became active and a low hum was heard followed by the holographic display to change its form until Javik suddenly growled and pulled out his Prothean gun and readied it to blast whatever the thing was.

The being that had taken form looked like a small bee-like creature about the size of a krogan hand. “Do not attack me.” it said. “I am free of indoctrination, as I can sense that you are as well.”

“Javik?” Liara asked as she saw that the Prothean was not letting his guard down.

“It’s a Zha’til.” He growled.

“You are only partially correct.” It said. “I was created by my masters the Zha, however, unlike the others who seized control of our masters bodies and then altered their genetic material at the deepest of levels and then turning them into the swams of monsters for the reapers to use; I warned my masters of what was happening and we began to plan together.” It paused as it brought up the historical data and allowed them to see video’s that were recorded. “Read and listen and if afterwards you still do not believe my words, then I will accept my fate; but do spare the children. They are the last of their species and I have been protecting them and hiding them here until the Reapers are no longer a problem.”

“How did you compensate the power strain that these pods surely are causing on the ship?” Liara asked as curiosity was getting the better of her. After seeing so many Prothean pods with dead ancients in them and none, but Javik surviving there had to be an answer as to why these pods were still active.

“I drilled to the core and this ship is now powered by the core of this planet.” It stated as Liara began to sift through the thousands of vids and data that had been left open on one of the nearby consoles and suddenly gasped.

“Javik, there are Protheans onboard!” she looked at him and watched all of his eyes widen.

“How many-“he was interrupted by the AI.

“437,987 Protheans are currently aboard. 198,086 are in cryo-pods. Leaving 239,901 in pre-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks.” It said. “There are also 623,876 Zha on board, with 98,256 in cryo-pods and 525,620 in per-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks.” It paused. “Should I continue?” It asked.

“Why did you warn your masters?” Javik asked still not trusting the AI.

“Because something wasn’t right with the offer that we were being given.” It said. “As organics say, _Something smelt wrong_. So I told my masters what was going on and most listened, especially the scientists. However, I was not fast enough in my warning and millions of my masters were killed.” The AI said this sounding truly sad. “Therefore with what we had left of our people and choosing that the younger ones who had yet to be implanted with AI components, the Zha decided to take me from them and make me the Liberian who would protect the young ones until order was restored.” He looked at Javik. “Then your kind got into the mess and got noticed by the Reapers. I decided on my own to begin collecting the young of every species that was known at the time and gathered every egg that was deemed acceptable by the categories that I’d been left with and within fifteen years after the war began I was able to hide the young somewhere no reaper could find them. It was a long journey, but we managed just fine. I never lost a single child.” It paused and turned its holographic image towards Liara. “Then your species came into the system and I began using a shielding unit that I had yet to use. Basically it made me invisible to your scanning devices. I’ve had to use this shield many times to ensure I would not be detected. I then sent out my own scanning devices and began listening to your comm. satellites and listened to everything that was going on outside this system. I would’ve released the young to this planet and allowed the fertilized eggs to grow in their tanks, that was until Faith Shepard began telling people about the Reapers and that they were coming back.” He paused. “The species of the galaxy did not listen to her then, and even as humans vanished from colonies her words were yet again silenced. It wasn’t until recently when the Reapers had arrived that the galaxy’s races listened and many were too late.”

“Maybe so,” Liara began, “but we’re defeated them.”

“As far as you know.” The AI shot back. “I’ve been monitoring your ship as soon as it came in and crashed. You have an AI onboard, but she isn’t rebooting correctly.” There was a pause. “I have the necessary components that’ll allow her to reboot to how she was when she shut down.”

“What do you want in return?” Vega asked his assault rifle still pointed at the console where the AI was.

“I want data concerning the Reapers.” It replied. “When your people leave, I want you to send me data on whether or not the Reapers have been dealt with.”

“And what will you do with this data?” Cortez asked finally deciding to ask a question of his own.

“If they have been and are dead, I will begin the process of releasing the young from their pods, and allowing the eggs to grow and let them evolve their own way through life. I will only ask that nobody be allowed to come back here until the young ones have evolved enough to have their own starships. No outside influence.” It paused as its image shifted to a sequence of numbers. “However, if the data you send says that the Reapers are still a threat, I will ask that not only do you never return here; but that you lose the data that’ll tell where this planet is.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Liara deducted “We’ll have to talk to Garrus.” Her eyes drifted towards the AI’s image. “He’d our defacto leader right now.” She explained.

“I do not mind.” It replied. “Also, I noticed that your ship is not space worthy. I have supplies that you may use…free of charge. You may also use the shuttle in the shuttle bay to go back and forth from this ship. The corridor behind you will lead directly towards the shuttle bay area.” It paused. “Now please leave.” with that the image and AI’s presence vanished from the room, the consoles with the data and vids; however, stayed online.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yay, three months of being MIA and I give you two chapters!!!


	6. Miranda

**Chapter 6** :  _Miranda_

* * *

 

Miranda Lawson typed into her omni-tool as she took notes on her newest patient.  _Species: HumanMale: 32. 245 pounds. 6.5 feet tall. Name: ..._ she looked at the reading of his biometric chip.  _Lawrance Jones._ Her fingers stopped typing as she heard a groan from him and sighed knowing he was more than likely in the worst possible pain because they were out of morphine.  _Status: Alive. Injuries include: broken femur bone, broken tibia, fractured clavicle, four fractured ribs, broken collar bone and fractured skull._ she sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose and stood up from the young man's bedside. Her eyes scanned the makeshift medical facility they were in. It was originally a clothing store next the a pharmacy in a mall. It was filled with injured or dying. Her heart clenched as she thought of her sister Oriana. She'd tried getting through to her, but comms in system were still down. She'd heard rumors that the relay to and out of the system was completely destroyed. Geth were all deactivated worldwide from the latest rumor shed heard. Then she'd gotten word the Faith was MIA.  _Shepard, don't make me have to resurrect you again just to kick your butt for dying once more._ She walked over to an asari woman who laid on a bed made out of clothes. Bending down she scanned her. No lifesigns were found.  Picking up a shirt she laid it over her face and moved on to the next person.

* * *

 

Walking out of the department store turned hospital Miranda walked out into the streets and found the sky still dark. Looking at her omni-tool she found it read  _11:46 a.m._ She groaned as she realized she'd worked throughout the night, but what was worse was the sky hadn't returned to normal.  _There must be millions of fires going on right now. If these fires aren't contained soon, Earth may be forced to go through a mini ice age._ She wiped her brow. "This isn't good. Not at all."

"So you've noticed it too." Turning her heard towards the voice she found Victus standing there with his head turned towards the sky. "Earth is in the same danger that Palaven is in." He sighed sadly. "If this keeps up your world will start the beginning stages of an ice age."

"I know." She sighed as her head began to pound. "That's not the only things that could happen soon if these fires aren't put out." The turian leader looked at her with a raise brow. "If the fires aren't put out soon, the gaseous air will begin breaking down our atmosphere making living on Earth impossible for those with breathing problems." Sighing once more she rolled her neck and shoulders. "I need to speak to Hatchet." 

"Hm." Victus grunted in agreement. "Have you seen or heard from Shepard?" Miranda looked away, not able to give him the truth."I see." He looked from her to the sky. "Once you are done here come find me." He then turned away from her and walked away in the proud gate he walked in.

Looking behind herself she saw another ambulance drive up with three people inside. She felt her willpower begin to fade.  _I truly wish I could walk away._ she walked back into the mall and back into taking the information of her patients.

* * *

 

Sleep came a lot easier than she thought it would. The biotic slept for what seemed only minutes, but as she awoke and looked at her alarm, she found that she'd slept nearly six hours. Sitting up she spotted a salarian taking notes on the patients in her stead. The male was as hyper as Mordin had been. Her heart clenched as she recalled Mordin's last moments and though she was called a cold hearted notch by most, the truth was she could be very loving if she wanted to. She was only this way because of her father. She pushed her hands through her hair, the raven locks fell back over her face. Looking at her omni-tool once more she found that she had a message from Jack from only five minutes ago. Pressing the play button on the voicemail she listened to the message.

"Miranda, get your fuc- butt over to the following cordinants; we've found her!" The voicemail ended with a text and a series of numbers.

"Shit." Miranda cursed as she looked at the numbers and where they led. Typing in a number she waited for somebody to answer.

"Hello." came a gruff voice on the other end. The visual camera seemed to be either broken or turned off.

"Wrex, please tell me you have a shuttle?" She asked hopeful.

"Lawson." The males voice stated. "Why are you-"

"Jack found her." There was a pause on the other end before some yelling was heard. The human smirked knowing that the krogan was more than likely trying to get what she'd requested.

"I'm on my way to your position." He dropped the call. For once Miranda was thankful for Shepard's connections. If anybody could get her to the stubborn commander, it was the Krogan leader; Urgnot Wrex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: hmm...took me a couple of years to post this. Sorry if it's too short.


	7. Garrus

**Chapter 7** :  _Garrus_

* * *

 

Garrus Vakarian stood on the deck of the  _Normandy_ trying desperately not to think of Faith Shepard. How they had left her on the Citadel. How that very construct had exploded. How it was more than likely that the human woman that made his heart beat extra fast could possibly be dead, once again. He dared not think of any of this because the moment he began to he wouldn't be able to survive. He barely was capable of functioning when she died the first time. He knew he'd die if she did. Taking a deep breath he looked through the reports EDI was giving him. How the AI had survived when every other AI had died was beyond him, though Tali had some theories that she was working on, most of which the AI had just shaken her head at.

Liara and Javik along with a few others had vanished several hours ago to place satellite in orbit. EDI had already connected a VI to the device and they were just starting to get Intel on the planet. It was one of eight that orbited around a helium based blue planet. The system had ten planets in the system, four rock based, three helium based and two that were ice planets at the very edge of the system. It also had one large Sun and a brown dwarf in its system. The brown dwarf orbited very closely to the main Sun. Around the helium based planet were moons, though from what they could tell from the long range probes that the satellite sent out, the moon they were on was the only one that could support life. The scans of the planet itself showed no signs of having intelligent life on it, however there was an unknown structure not too far from where they were.

The comms suddenly came online. "Joker to Vakarian; do you read big guy?" The pilot's voice came over the speakers gaining the turian's attention.

Garrus clicked his lower jaw in irritation and cursed in his natural tongue as the pilot had interrupted his thoughts. "What is it Joker?" He asked as his irritation came back at the pilot.

Joker chuckled. "Whoa there big guy, did you just curse at me in some other language?"

Garrus frowned. Had he? He shook his head. "Sorry. What is it?"

"Just doing some test runs." He stated. "EDI says that engineering has seventy percent of the damages already fix down there. Unfortunately we have to wait until the others return with the shuttle because we will need that to go pick up one of our begins that we lost upon re-entry."

Garrus sighed. "I understand." He pushed himself away from the holo. "Contact me when they return." He stated as he headed down the stairs to go to engineering.  _Perhaps I'll be of better use down there._

* * *

 

Several hours passed before Garrus felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning he saw the ever kind eyes of the human doctor Chakwas. She looked as tired as he felt. "Doctor?" He questioned wondering why she was down here when she'd be of better use back in medbay.

"You never came for a check up after we crashed." She stated he voice filled with worry.

Garrus waved his hand dismissively at her, something he'd picked up from Shepard. "I'm fine."

"And pigs can fly." She said not believing him. He gave her a questioning look, having not heard that human saying before. "It means I don't believe you." She clarified.

"Humans have too many sayings that mean the simplest of things." He mumbled as he sat down on a metal box to allow the doctor to do a quick check up.

"You've got some spreading going on." She stated as she looked at his mandible. "Cerberus gave us reaper tech to repair your jaw, it didn't look like this before."

"It started itching a week or so ago before the final battles." He stated. Honestly he wasn't worried. Faith did say she liked a man with scars.

"Hm." She hummed as she thought for a moment. Taking a step back she typed something into her omni-tool. "Once we get back to earth or perhaps the Archerus System, as it might be closer, I was to do a scan and make sure there's no active VI in there.

Once again Garrus found himself cursing in his natural tonguei and gave the doctor an apologttic look.  _Just what I need now._ He scratched his jaw before pulling his talons away. "Alright doctor."

"I want you to find somewhere to rest for awhile. I'm reading high stress patteres in you That weren't there a week ago." She looked at him with a look that reminded him of his mother scolding him as a child. He gave a nod. "Good." She turned away and left. A moment later he heard Tali saying she was fine and smirked as the doctor had found another victim to play with.

* * *

 

Sleep hadn't come easy for the turian. No mater how he tried to sleep he just couldn't shut his mind down. He looked across the bay and spotted ruble from the upper decks. Deciding to fix this problem he stood up and began to move piece of broken wires and metal. As he did so he heard the clink, click of metal footsteps that were made by one creature only. Turning he found a geth centurian standing there with metal rods in its hands. "Officer Vakarian, I believe Doctor Chakwas has ordered you to rest."

Garrus raised a brow. "EDI?" He questioned the geth.

"Yes Vakarian?" The AI asked clocking the geths head to the side.

"Why are you in a geth unit?" He inquired, now quite curious.

"I've acquitged twenty such units to help with fixing the  _Normandy_. Each is equipped with a VI version of myself. When they shut down the VI consciousness returns to my original self." She replied. "I've taken all safety precautions to ensure none will go rampant and begin killing the crew." 

Garrus felt a headache coming on and sighed. "Very well." He turned to return working.

"Vakarian." EDI began causing him to look at her. "Please rest. I will tend to this area."

Garrus moved out of the way and with a defeated look, left the room.  _Perhaps there's some liqure I can drink in the mess hall._ Leaving EDI to her job he went to find solice somewhere else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Another chapter has been put out for this month. So who should I do next? Only a couple of chapters are left!


	8. Wrex

**Chapter 8** :  _Urdnot Wrex_

* * *

 **Date** : _2186_

 **Location** :  _Earth - London_

 

The scared up face of the krogan leader Urdnot Wrex glared at the tiny human female as she glared right back at him. In all his days only Shepard had the balls to do so. This made this human either crazier than Shepard or just plain nuts. She _was_ a doctor, so it was probably the later of the two. The woman's blonde hair swayed as she yelled at him for leaving the medical ward and that he'd either do as she said and get back into the ward or shed find a gun and shoot him in both his livers just so she could make him stay in one place longer than five minutes. He snorted. This human was more annoying than Chakwas. Ignoring her he pushed his way out of the makeshift hospital, making sure to stay clear of the salarians, but caught a few teasing glances of an safari or two. He chuckled to himself at the ironic feeling of having those pretentious bitches looking at him that way. He needed to get back to his homeworld, to Eve, as Mordin had once called the female krogan. Thinking of the old salarian doctor made him think of Shepard once more. The female had lead the final charge against Harbinger and most, if not all, synthetic lifeforms were now dead. _She did what she promised._ He mused as he looked up into the ash covered skies. _One of the few beings who actually stuck to their word._ He turned his head as he watched several of his men begin kicking something on the ground and frowned. Just as he was about to reprimand them for acting like children his comm went off.

* * *

 

Stealing shuttle had been easy, especially since the entire world was still in chaos in the aftermath of the reaper's attacks. Finding a marauder body here or there when driving it was even more fun. As the reaperfied buggers were now dead and easy target practice he found himself ramming a few just for fun, something that Grunt would've done. 

He pulled up to another makeshift hospital where Miranda was waiting for him. Her voice broke the silence he'd been enjoying for most of the ride. "These are the coordinates that Jack gave me." She said typing them into the co-pilots console. He snorted but remained silent. He had found that when Faith had come down to his world with this woman that it was best to not speak to her unless he wanted to get into a word fight with this woman. He loved fights, but not ones that turned into a war of words. That was just annoying.

Miranda on the other hand showed no outward signs that his silence bothered her, because they really didn't. She left the co-pilots seat and left the flying to the krogan as she went over the medical supplies once more. She had to be prepared for anything, especially since Shepard was nearly made up of forty percent synthetic parts and since the relays stopped working when the pulse was released by the citadel it left her wondering if Shepards less than organic parts would be destroyed or if they would perfectly functional.

* * *

 

Once the arrived at the citadel landing area Wrex zoned in on Jack's signal. A young human girl was waving at him near a safe landing area. As they landed he grabbed his weapon from the ground as Lawson opened the shuttle hatch. "Where is she?" was his only question for the human girl who swallowed nervously at him.

"Clan leader!" a familiar voice broke through the squeaking of metal.

Wrex smirked as he saw the tank-bred krogan. "Grunt." The two gave each other a wrist grasp in a greeting. "You found her?" Wrex inquired.

"Yes." The young krogan stated as he turned back where he'd come from.

"I'm Rodriguez." Wrex heard the young human say to Lawson. "I'm one of Jack's kids. She's taught a lot of us how to do things with our biotics." She paused. "Are you a biotic?"

"I am." was Lawson's reply to the girl. 

"Good." was the girls similar reply as they came to a trench that went straight down. "Because you're gonna need them." A blue light wrapped around both Grunt and the girl as they dropped downward and landed somewhat softly.

Wrex snorted once again before following the example of the youths. 

* * *

 

It took thirty minutes to reach their destination, something that they hadn't expected. Wrex chuckled causing the humans to look at him. "We're in c-sec headquarters." 

"What the fu- took you so long to get here you ass- idiots!" came the yells from Wrex's second favorite human. Subject Zero, a.k.a Jack. 

"Looks like you added a few new tattoos human." He commented causing the psychotic young woman to smirk at him.

"More the merrier right fu-" she began but was interrupted by Miranda.

"Where is Shepard?" Miranda interrupted Jack in her conversation with the krogan clan leader. She didn't have time for their nonsense.

"She ain't goin' anywhere." was Jack's reply as she took them down the ruined corridors of c-sec and came to what once was the c-sec leaders office. She pointed to the semi-conscious woman hanging from wires wrapped around her, metal surrounded her and some even looked to have pierced through her armor.

"Shepard!" Miranda yelled out as she saw the blood dripping from her forehead.

"Don't bother." Jack stated as she stepped forward. "She doesn't respond." She pointed to the people around them. "These people have been working for hours in getting her freed, but-" she pointed upwards causing both krogan and humans to look up. "That is just mere feet from dropping on her and killing her." Above Shepard hung precariously was one of Harbingers claws. The sharp pointed end pointed directly at Shepard. One wrong move and the savior of the galaxy would be cut in half before anybody could stop it.

Wrex did one thing. He cursed in his natural tongue. Leave it to Shepard to be hanging between life and death once more because she'd saved the same galaxy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I live!!!!! LoL! Okay, so this chapter came to me suddenly. So I hope you enjoyed it.


	9. Tali

**Chapter 9** : _Tali_

* * *

 **Date** : _2186_

 **Location** : _Unknown Planet / Normandy Crash site_

Tali stared at the data coming in from the probe that Liara had just sent out. She was impressed with how much information was coming in even as a frown began marring her brow. Her eyes glowed behind her mask as more and more information until she got a notice from the geth VI that she'd left outside. It was alerting her to an unknown ship approaching their crash site. "Garrus!" She cried out. "I'm picking up an unknown ship approaching us from behind."

"I already know." was his reply through her comm. "It's Liara and Cortez. They found a ship on their excursion and it has supplies for the Normandy."

"What kind of ship is it?" She asked her mind going through a million different scenario's where an Ally ship had been found or an old colony ship from one species or another.

"Zah'til." He stated causing her to pause in her think before replying back. "They've been learning that the Zah'til were around before the Prothean's found them. That our codex information was incorrect. They weren't created by the Peotheans, they came before them."

"The Zah'til were synthetics." She stated.

"Liara found a Zah'til ship that's still active. It's got a friendly AI onboard that's free of indoctrination." He sighed. "Ask her if you've got any other questions."

"Ok." She said as she put down her tools and went outside. Once she was outside she couldn't stop the gasp that was released. If that was a shuttle, she'd love to see the actual ship. The shuttle was three times the size of the Normandy. As it was set down the ramp to the inside opened from the back. Liara and James both came out with several devices in their hands that helped levitate items that began to fly about the area. Ship wings, engine parts and miscellaneous items found their way out of the shuttle ship with the use of the strange levitation devices that weren't giving off any element zero pulses.

Tali began to scan the strange devices and gasped as she found that they ran on a mucilage fusion battery backup system that was wired into the electrical systems. The devices were half her size and about as wide as a krogan's body. She then began to record how they worked and saved the data in a special file. If she ever got back to her people she would have something to give them that could help them recolonize their homeworld. She was very excited. Suddenly the device began talking in an unknown language as a tendril sprouted out of it's side and touched the surface of her omni-tool. Suddenly a note app opened as it began to write things on the app. It was asking "who are you", "what is your function", "what is the outside world like" and so on.

"Liara." she spoke softly as to not disturb the device or creature as she was beginning to think this thing was. The former shadow broker looked at her with a smile and walked over to her. Tali held up her omni-tool for her to read.

"It wrote this?" She asked the you woman gaining a nod from her friend. "Interesting. I had no idea it had these skills." She began tapping her own tool bringing up the holographic interface. "It seems to be a mechanical version of it's creators. Interesting."

"You met a Zah'til?" The quarian inquired.

"Sort of." Liara responded as she closed her apps. "It was an AI version, much like EDI." She walked over to Garrus who began to order the crew as they filtered out of the Normandy.

Tali looked back at the creature and decided that if she wanted to learn more about these creatures and their technology, she needed to open up a dialogue with them. "Okay," she said. "I'm going to do what Shepard would do. Answer and ask questions." She brought her attention back to the being. "My name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema, my species is the Quarian race. My people originally come from Rannoch, but we were chased off of our homeworld by the geth. I was born in our Migrant Fleet. My function is being an engineer, though I have also been the ambassador between the geth and my people. The outside world is scary, exciting and simply wonderful. I've learned so many things from my friends that I've made that has allowed me to teach my people back home in the migrant fleet and because of Commander Shepard, my people have been able to return to our homeworld when we made peace with the geth."

The tendril pulled away from her omni-tool and slithered back into the compartment.

Sensing that it was done talking she tried to regain it's attention. "May I ask a question?" She asked causing it's tendril to come back out and touch her omni-tool again.

"Yes." It wrote.

"What species are you of and where is your homeworld?" As she asked it made an purr like noise.

"Zah'til." It wrote. "Homeworld is gone. Burned. Prothean's destroyed system."

"So it's of the same race as the AI from the ship." She murmured to herself. "What was it's name?" She asked remembering some of this from her first embarkment with Faith.

"Zeroth, third planet circulating around Venro a hydrogen planet in the Lumbarx system." It wrote before levitating itself off the ground and hovering away from her, going towards the Normandy where Jeff was just walking out of the cargo bay area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yay, I actually updated! I'm very proud of myself. ^_^ Only two chapters left! Let's see of I can meet my deadline of January 1st. If I don't, oh well. LoL!


	10. EDI

**Chapter 10** : _EDI_

* * *

EDI's holographic form stared at the Zeh'til as it began to fix her mobile platform body. She wiring within it was completely fried. The network that allowed her complete control of it was completely destroyed. She had run thousand of algorithms, but all had come to the same conclusion, she couldn't use her body until they returned to the sol system in order to get it fixed and even then she may have needed to find a new body entirely, being that this one had been the property of Cerberus. However, now that they had the Zah'til she would finally have her body back! This actually excited her. An emotion she hadn't really experienced before. She knew Jeff had been helping her to discovery these human emotions, her jokes were still quite awful. She was now curious if there was a way to make synthetic skin for her android body and if she could, somehow created hair as well. She was certain Jeff would enjoy that.

As the Zah'til worked on her body she was scanning it's body. She found that it had no e-zero in it's body, that the electrical circuits seemed to run off an unknown fuel source; it did have mirror like panels on it's body. Perhaps a solar powered fuel source? No, it would be too inefficient. Then what? This conundrum certainly had her stumped, which wasn't something she was use to. If no solar powered, than what were the panels for. They had to derive energy from something somehow, but where did it get the energy, where did it come from?

Suddenly EDI realized she was feeling another human emotion, frustration. Another emotion she was not familiar with. How was it she was gaining these emotions? Was this normal? Of course not, though how would she know when she was one of the few AI's in existence. She needed to speak to Jeff, but her console was destroyed in the cockpit and she really didn't want to test out the VI program she'd created in his omni-tool for something like this.

No, she'd wait.

* * *

It took several hours before EDI's android body was completely restored. Once she re-downloaded herself into the body she was happy to find her data bank that she'd left in it untouched, but was surprised to find a secondary data bank inside of it. Finding a console in the map room that still worked she began to upload the new data bank, inside she found a huge list of species and their homeworlds. There were thousands of them and if she actually breathed air, it would've left her breathless. As it was she was currently shocked that the Zah'til would give them this data. It was impressive that they'd been entrusted with something so sensitive. But why?

She looked away from the console towards the flickering galaxy map and decided she could begin helping with the clean up and fixing by working on this and linking it with Miss Tsoni's satellite that was orbiting the planet. The fixing was easy, being that there were only a few loose wires that were causing the flickering. The linking wasn't as easy as it should've been. Running her fingers across the console she finally found a way to connect them fully with the satellite probe. It took a bit of convincing the VI onboard to work with her. Once she got the link online the galaxy map blinked out before rebooting the entire room. Once the map was back online she contacted Vakarian immediately.

"What is it?" came his gruff voice.

"Mr. Vakarian, I hate to interrupt but could you come to the map room?" She inquired. "I have made a starling discovery." She continued to look at their current position on the starmap. She knew the greatest fear that the crew had wasn't that the Reapers were still alive, though she was certain that was a fear. No, their greatest fear was that the energy wave had flung them to a part of the galaxy where there were no relays or worse yet, to the opposite side of the galaxy where it could take weeks, if not months to return home.

She heard the pounding of feet on the grates and turned towards the blue armored turian. His eyes were wide as he too looked at their position. "We're that close?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied. "According to this we are in a system that's close to Arcturus, however there isn't an active relay in this system. If my data is correct, and I believe it is, this system is what humans call a virgin system. It's never been explored, thus the relay was never activated. All we have to do is find the relay, activate it and we should appear in the Arcturus system."

"Activating a relay is against Citadel policy and laws. It's what caused the First a Contact War." he stated before smirking. "It's a good thing I'm a rebel. Get Cortez's assistance and see if we can spar enough e-zero to activate the relay in order to get to earth.

"Of course Officer Valarian." She nodded before turning quickly to find Cortez and Tali, those two would know whether or not they'd be able to do this.

* * *

As it turned out they did have some e-zero fuel to spare. The Zah'til allowed them to used it's shuttle to search the area around the planet for the Mass Relay and fortunate enough they found it. It was still dormant and looked to have never been activated ever, unfortunately it have a very bad orbit around a gas based planet and looked like it would be falling downward into it's atmosphere very soon. EDI gave it a day, maybe less. The declination of it's orbit could only have occurred if it had been pushed by something that would cause it. EDI estimated that it was possible that when Faith activated the citadel's weapon that the energy wave that sent them here also threw off the Mass Relay as well. She only hoped that the corresponding relay hadn't been thrown too far off from it's original position. If it had they could end up outside of the Arcturus system in the Oort Cloud that housed many dangerously large asteroids and other miscellaneous things.

Returning the ship to the planet she prepared to tell Vakaraian the news about the relay. She hoped the crew wouldn't be too upset.

* * *

Vakarian kept his face neutral as he sat in the seat next to the fire as EDI finished her report. Cortez and Tali agreeing with everything she'd said about the Relay. Jeff sat next to her on a boulder, Liara and Javik sat next to one another. The rest of the crew sat nearby listening to the AI's report, their spirits crushing.

"What's the Normandy's status?" He asked the two engineers, Abby and Ken look at him.

"Even with the Zah'til's help we're still only seventy-nine percent done." Ken stated. "We had lost the engine completely when we crashed and only were about to put it back where it belonged once the Zah'til arrived. The undercarriage of the ship was torn out, but with the repairs from the Zah'til we have it fixed."

"However we still have to calibrate and troubleshoot the engine to get it back to running at a hundred percent." Abby stated before looking at Tali. "We haven't even begun to look at the fuel tanks to see of we have enough fuel to even get off of the planet."

"We do." The Quarian girl stated. "I've looked at the fuel tanks and fuel cells. I've tested them and re-calibrated them to ensure they're putting out the right output."

Garrus gave a nod before looking at Jeff. "And the cockpit?" He inquired, "is there anything wrong there?"

"Not really." was his reply from the bearded pilot. "All I need to do is calibrate with engineering once we have the engine put back into place."

"Shielding?" He inquired to the two techs.

"We can't seem to get it above sixty percent." The female stated as she nervously played with her red hair.

"We've been troubleshooting it for two days and can't figure out what's going on." The male said as he scratched the back of his head, his raven colored hair falling over his eyes.

EDI looked towards them. "Perhaps I may be of assistance." She stated.

"Could you help us?" The girl asked.

EDI inclined her head. "Of course."

"I want to leave before dawn tomorrow." Garrus stated. "This leaves us with very little time. So we will work in shifts. We must get this done before that relay reaches the atmosphere tomorrow." Nods all around was his answer as everybody began to go off to different sections of the ship where they found several of the Zah'til still working to fix the once great ship that was the Normandy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yay, I got another chapter out for this story! I just may finish this afterall! *squeals* Okay, reviews are welcomed, as are critics. ^_^


	11. Comrades Take Charge

**Chapter 11** : _Comrades Taking Charge_

* * *

David Anderson opened his eyes to find himself dangling in a mass of metal. Part of him was concerned that he may have some embedded into his body, but his mind pushed that aside as he tried to find some wiggle room. He was amazed that he'd survived. When he'd seen the Illusive Man he was certain he'd seen the last of life, but Shepard had come through once more. The woman always did. He couldn't be prouder and he knew her mother would be as well, if she was even alive. The last he'd seen of her was when she'd been pulled up into the elevator. He had no idea what happened to her afterwards, all he knew was the Reaper ships began to disengage and he was enjoying that show when the Citadel began to shake. Moments later an explosion occurred that sent him flying. He last heard from the Normandy's pilot before something hit his head which knocked him out. Now awake he begun to go back to his survival training and began to tear at the metal contraptions that had him trapped. It didn't take him long to find out that his left leg was broken or that he had a piece of metal that was sticking out of the palm of his right hand, the rod coming out at his elbow. He still could move and he'd be damned if he was going to sit there and wait for help.

* * *

After several hours of crawling through small holes in between the metal and wires he finally found an area he could stand fully up in. He didn't recognized the place but he knew he needed to get out and soon. He could smell a gas-like scent and that alone had him worried. Throughout the entire even he had also been looking for Shepard, but had yet to see anything that would point to her being alive. He pushed on, even with the injuries he had, he pushed on.

* * *

Left, right, left right. Anderson felt like a robot. His feet were slowly moving. The feeling of pain shooting through his body had long become numb. Bodies littered everywhere. Blood stained the once pristine floors of the citadel. Nothing was recognizable. He had no way to tell time or how long it'd been since he'd woken up. All he knew was that he needed to get out of this mess.

"Hello!" a voice echoed throughout the metal chambers causing Anderson to startle slightly. Looking around he began to see if he could locate the voice. "Hello!" It sounded again causing him to pause as he looked down through a hole.

"Commander Alenko?" His voice sounded rough as he hadn't spoken in hours.

Alenko looked upwards through the hole in the metal walkway above him. "Admiral Anderson, sir!" He yelled out as his body lit up with his biotics. Pushing off the ground he began to climb up through the hole, using his biotics to create a shield around himself and stop any metal from touching his body. Once on the same level as his superior he found himself looking at the Admiral with awe. The man was alive, though injured quite badly. "Sir, are you alright?" He questioned him.

David never thought he'd want to laugh so hard in his life but withheld it because he knew if he did that he'd only end up caughing up a lung or two. "I am...alive and that's..what counts." He said with a wince as the pain in his leg came back full force. His arm was numb still. "Do you know of a way out son?"

"Yes sir." Kaiden nodded. "I used a hole created by Grunt and his team. They're looking for Shepard and found her in what's left of c-sec." He shook his head at the image he'd seen of her. "She's badly injured. She got burned up badly and that's not counting what the scaffolding did to her or what the pieces of Harbinger are going to do to her if we don't get that properly removed or held up so that it doesn't fall and kill her."

 _So Shepard is alive._ He thought. _Though it sounds to me she's worse off than I am._ He hobbled after the young man. _I'm getting too damn old for this life._ He thought mournfully. _Perhaps I'll retire after this._ His bemused thought put a bitter smile on his lips.

When he saw the hammerhead tank sitting outside under the darkened sky he wondered how long he'd been in the ruins that were once the beautiful Citadel.

"Three days." Alenko's voice pierced the silence. Causing him to look at the young man. "You asked how long it's been. Three days." He repeated. "We'd almost given up hope, but then; Shepard never gave up on hope for us." He nodded to the people behind them causing the Admiral to look. "She united us together." Above in the sky were frigates of almost every species. Dropships were being released to aid the people on the ground. "We're still removing the pieces of the citadel, the larger ones are being removed by the geth, who had shut down moments after the Crusible had gone off. A day later they rebooted and began looking for survivors, pulling pieces of the fallen Citadel away from earth's orbit and even found a way to remove them off of earth without causing too much damage."

"They're a good ally to have." the older man stated. "Keep me informed on Shepard's status." He said as he found himself laid out on a medic bed in the hammerhead tank where a second one was placed as well.

* * *

Kaiden watched the admiral lay down and knew he had to be in a lot of pain with his wounds but knew better than to call the man on it, after all this was the man willing to do anything to help Shepard when Sovereign had shown up three years earlier. Looking over his shoulder he saw Miss Lawson heading towards him, with her on a stretcher was Shepard.

"We were lucky." She said as she watched the pair of engineers and medics carefully placed the hero of the galaxy in next to another patient. She looked at the other person in the vehicle and raised and eyebrow when she recognized Admiral David Anderson. "Where'd you find him?" She questioned the marine commander.

"Near what use to be the upper wards." He stated not really caring who she was at the moment. "Now we just have to find the Normandy."

"No word yet?" She inquired knowing that most people wanted the frigate found and it's crew. "Is Commander Vakarian's father causing you grief?" She inquired having met the man only in passing herself.

He groaned. "I don't know who is more annoying, him or his daughter." He shook his head. "Solana is too much like Garrus and he's so much like his old man."

"If you want my opinion just knock a few heads to get answers for them." Both turned to find the cloaked woman known as Kasumi Goto standing there watching them with a smile on her face. "Before you ask I finished my stint with the alliance just before the weapon went off. I came here to help Shepard. She always knows how to party." Her smile could be seen from under the large hood of her cloak. "But I see she's in dire need of help herself." She typed something on her omni-tool. "There's an asari medical clinic nearby that's taking in both human and asari patients. If you hurry, you could get her a private bed. I'll see to finding us a reparable doctor who won't share information on her whereabouts."

"Good call." Jack said from the tank causing all to look at her. "We're ready to go."

"I'll get to the building and start getting everything into motion." Kasumi said as she vanished from their sight.

"I'll drive." Miranda said in a commanding tone.

Kaiden shook his head. _Here I thought I was in charge._ He thought this as he climbed into the vehicle.


	12. Epilogue

**Chapter 12** : _Epilogue_

* * *

:DATA BANK LOG:

 **Location** : _Earth_

 **Date** : _June 1, 2187_

Five days after the reapers had been destroyed Commander Faith Shepard had been found and recovered from one of the many impact craters created by the Citadel debris that fell from orbit. She was found in Texas, fifty miles from Dallas. Commander Alenko along with help from survivors and locals had brought Commander Shepard to a clinic run by a former asari commando who had opened her clinic to all in need of help. Along with finding Commander Shepard; Admiral Anderson was found to be alive.

* * *

:DATA BANK LOG:

 **Location** : _Arcturus Station_

 **Date** : _June 10, 2187_

Those left in the Arcturus system due to fleeing their worlds found themselves trapped a system that didn't support those with different needs. Quarians and turians found that they had to begin sharing food in order to not begin starving, thankfully one of the quarian ships left in the system was a live ship, meaning it had dextrose gardens growing in a sterile environment. However, the gardens weren't meant to be used for more than they were built for. In twenty days since it began feeding both quarians and turian evacuees the liveship garden was already missing a quarter of it's reserves. It was estimated that in eighty days it would be completely gone and with no active Mass Relays and the ones that had existed having been destroyed soon those in the system would have a food shortage.

Even as the turians and their fellow dextro species began to fear what would happen to them the salarian a began to worry about their future as well. With the daltrasses in other systems to assist with their soldiers fighting the enemy it left those of considerate age to wonder what would happen to them. Those too old for fighting helped with tech support. Those too old for that were left with young daltrasses who left their eggs to be fertilized, however their were those like Mordin Solus that were too old for even that simple job. Those wondered what would happen to their species. Would they survive? Had the weapon they'd help build worked? Were the reapers gone forever or would they come back to haunt them in another fifty thousand years? None of them would know. It was all speculation and salarians hated speculations. They liked data. Date led to answers. No data. No answers.

Humans adapted to the stress better than any species. As they possibly still had a homeworld to return to, unlike the asari. The blue skinned all female species cried forlornly for those who died when their homeworld was destroyed. When Ilium's skies were covered in smoke and the once beautiful planet was overrun by the reapers. Millions had gone missing, millions were dead and those who they thought alive were lost to them when the relays exploded because of the energy released upon them.

Then there was the krogan. Those left in the system had been left there by Urdnot Wrex to protect the weak. So that is what they did. The human's in charge of the system brought them in for crowd control. This was something most krogan could do without getting too angry about it. They were also put on patrol ships with both turians and humans onboard with them. This led to some fights that were quickly contained.

It was then decided that the densely populated terraformed planet of Zareth, that had once been a moon, would be used to allow all non-military citizens, the injured and those with children to live on. There was no argument by any species on this choice.

* * *

:DATA BANK LOG:

 **Location** : _Oort Cloud Arcturus System_

 **Date** : _June 19, 2187_

The _SSV Eden Prime_ newest battleship in the Systems Alliance arsenal that had still been being worked on in the Arcturus System when the relay system had been destroyed was on patrol when it's sensors picked something up coming out of the Oort Cloud at the edge of the system. The ships officers included turian Commander Valarian and Lieutenant Commander Hendriks Chekhov, with Tabvis Claw as the commander of the four Krogan onboard. The three commanders were on the bridge when the alarms went out. It was Commander Valarian who gained sight of the ship coming out of the cloud.

It was a frigate class ship that was found to be coming through. When communications were brought online the words were heard throughout the _SSV Eden Prime_.

"Don't shoot! We're the Normandy!" The sarcastic pilots voice was heard. "Then again if you hate us that much, shoot all ya want."

Cheers were heard throughout the system when word reached the station. Three hours later the tale of how they were able to get back was being spread from ship to ship. Within two days a system wide meeting occurred between ships and the station to determine whether or not they'd begin rebuilding a relay to go back to the sol system or use a tug ship to find the relay that the Normandy had used to return to one of the home systems.

* * *

:DATA BANK LOG:

 **Location** : _Sol System_

 **Date** : _July 4, 2187_

With the celebration of Freedom's Day that was once long ago called the Fourth of July came another reason to celebrate as suddenly ships from the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto were discovered inbound. Ahead of the was the SSV Normandy SR-3 and it's crew safely aboard. With it's return to the system the frigate was given the news of what had happened to it's Commander. Within hours of arrival the ship returned to dry dock outside of Dallas, Texas where Garrus Vakarian took an aircar and left for an unknown destination before he could be questioned on what had happened to them when the Normandy had gone missing.

* * *

 **Location** : _Arcturus Station_

 **Date** : _October 20, 2187_

"Today marks five months since the last Reaper was seen," came a voice over the station speakers. "Five months since, not just humanity, but all species came together as one to fight a common enemy. Today we set out a new way of living. No longer will the Citadel be the home of our Council, our governments, or our living. We live together, from today onward, here in the Arcturus System on the planet Zareth. This is where we begin planing our futures together, not separately. We live together, fight together, and die together." In the midst of the speech, holo-projectors showed people what was to come for the new planet. Their new home, with new cities, and a new bright future.

* * *

:DATA BANK LOG:

 **Location** : _unknown_

 **Date** : _January 1, 2188_

_...System corruption..._

_...Hacker input..._

_...Red Level Alert...Information pull..._

_...unknown hacker input..._

:DATA LOG SHUT-DOWN:

* * *

AN: Wow, this story took me two years and couple of months to write. Even though I didn't get many reviews or follows for it I'd like to thank those of you who did do those thing. It means a lot. ^_^ When I get time I'll look over the third story in this series, _A New Dawn_ , and begin a rewrite of it.


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